Game Night: Burros face Granite Hills on short week

Wednesday

Oct 16, 2013 at 2:34 PM

The Burroughs football team has a short week to prepare for its final road test of the regular season. The Burros play at Granite Hills on Thursday night to conclude a stretch of four straight road contests.

By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITORagentile@ridgecrestca.com

The Burroughs football team has a short week to prepare for its final road test of the regular season. The Burros play at Granite Hills on Thursday night to conclude a stretch of four straight road contests."We have to go in there and handle business — our goal was to have a shot at the league title and have it come through our house," Burros head coach Todd Mather said. "If we get this done Thursday we're still on track with that goal."Burroughs is 2-1 so far on its month-long stretch of road games, beating Adelanto and Barstow after losing to Apple Valley. The length of the road trip has been a source of amusement rather than frustration, and has fostered an unlikely relationship between the Burros and the Burger King restaurant located at Four Corners."It's gotten to the point where it's funny — the Burger King in Four Corners can't wait for us to get there," Mather said. "It's the same workers and same manager, and we've built a relationship because we've been on the road for four weeks in a row."We're excited just to get off that bus and get back to our home field."A Thursday night game means both Burroughs and Granite Hills have one less day of preparation than in a typical week. For the Burros, it also means they will have to skip their weekly spaghetti dinner at Knights of Columbus. "We kind of have a routine and we try to get certain things done throughout the week — a takeaway circuit, a tackling circuit, a violent yards circuit," Mather said. "We do one of those each day mixed in with our offense, defense, individuals and special teams, and just trying to cram it down into one less day gets you out of your routine."Fortunately for the Burros, the short week comes against a team they have enjoyed recent success against. Burroughs has beaten Granite Hills six years in a row, largely due to a lack of stability at the top of the Cougars' program — first-year head coach Damian Staricka is Granite Hills' fifth different coach in the past five seasons."They've been struggling — they're young and they've had a carousel of coaches," Mather said. "They're going to need some time to build — they're obviously down and we know that but we're preparing the same way we do each week."Burroughs' advantage in the trenches makes a seventh straight victory over Granite Hills a distinct possibility. Mather said he expects the Burros to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball on Thursday night. "They're not where they need to be on the line of scrimmage with their offensive and defensive line," Mather said. "We should be really dominant on the line of scrimmage and that's where we should hurt them. They have athletes, but if your linemen aren't getting it done you can't do anything."Granite Hills runs a double tight Power I formation on offense, which might require Burroughs to make defensive adjustments. The Burros will start out in their 3-3 pressure stack with defenders walking up on the Cougars' tight ends, but could go to their 5-4 "Urlacher" defense if they need more players inside. In either formation, Burroughs' defensive linemen will be running stunts for the first time this season."We practice them all the time, but we finally put the wristband numbers with those plays on them in," Mather said. "We really want to work on them this week and give Silverado some stuff on film to work against."Burroughs ran for a season-high 321 yards in last week's victory at Barstow. The Burros might not run as much against Granite Hills, depending on what the Cougars' defense shows on Thursday night."We're going to see what they're going to give us — we're ready to throw the ball but we definitely want to establish the run game. I feel that we can run on anyone," Mather said. Granite Hills has a four-man defensive front often paired with three linebackers. Against seven defenders in the middle of the field and cornerbacks lined up off the ball, Burroughs will run its "Apache" screens on the line of scrimmage to receivers Tyron Jones, Kyle Cornell and Mekhi Ayers along with tight ends Richie Villa and Hayden Sonnenberg — starter Biggie Hernandez will miss the game with a hamstring injury."We always expect a six-man box maximum — if they put seven in the box we're going to throw all over them," Mather said. "I don't think they can cover us."Burroughs ran an empty backfield in its spread offense for the first time last week, and will use it again against Granite Hills. The Burros will also roll out two new offensive wrinkles against the Cougars — option plays and play-action passes out of two-back sets.Granite Hills comes into Thursday's game 2-4, with wins over Littlerock and Adelanto. The Cougars lost 56-0 at Silverado last week.Burroughs plays Granite Hills Thursday night at Newton T. Bass Stadium. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.